co

Name: co, English Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

/kəʊ/

//kəʊ// noun

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“co” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #617) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#617
frequency rank, English: 5,599
“C” headwords: 20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Clipping of company.

Corpus desk

Index EN-co · co · English

co · rank #617 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

FREQ-CORE #617
LEN-SHORT 2 letters
VOW-1 1 vowel
CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
VAR-0 0 variants
BOOK-DENSE 5,599
PHOTO-FINISH account

Nearest frequency peer: account (-1 rank slots)

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

strong

99,387
you'll

99,386
account

99,385
co

99,384
especially

99,383
eyes

99,382

What this shows Bars place “co” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

co vs CT

0% similar

co vs CR

0% similar

co vs cs

50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for co
Property	Value
Headword	co
Language	English
Part of speech	Noun
IPA	/kəʊ/
Letters	2
Frequency rank	#617
Misspellings tracked	0
Confusable pairs	20
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus rank beside confusables of “co”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).colands here:

#617

#1#100#1K#10K#100K

← used constantlyrarely used →

Ticks step logarithmically, so each one marks a roughly tenfold drop in how often the word turns up. Same rarity band neighbours include “account” (#616), “especially” (#618), “you'll” (#615). Among 5,599 “C” headwords, “co” is #617. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for co is neighbouring look-alikes ("CT", "CR", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /kəʊ/. Frequency #617 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Gloss: "Clipping of company.".

No misspelling variants are generated for co in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable English patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CT", "CR", "cs", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct English form is co, spelled C-O.

Definition

1
Clipping of company.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "co"?

"co" is spelled C-O. The IPA pronunciation is /kəʊ/.

What does "co" mean?

As a noun, "co" means: Clipping of company.

What words are commonly confused with "co"?

"co" is commonly confused with "CT", "CR", "cs". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.

How do you pronounce "co"?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "co" is /kəʊ/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.

What language does "co" come from?

"co" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.

Is PlainSpell free to use?

Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.